Wilko revamps senior leadership team to accelerate turnaround
Wilko has announced that it has revamped its senior leadership team as part of plans to stabilise the business and accelerate its turnaround.
It also said it will be making changes to its management structure at both its stores and head office, but was unable to confirm the scale of change at present. Reports emerged last week that the retailer could cut over 400 jobs to help reduce costs.
The new appointments have been made by new Wilko chief executive Mark Jackson following a review of its strategic plan, which includes driving more sales and pushing down operating costs.
Jackson said: “To deliver our strategic priorities we must remain focused, and our leadership structure needs to be fully aligned to achieve this. Having now reviewed the current structure, we need to remove both the duplication of functions and operating costs. As part of this review, we’ve had to take some necessary and difficult decisions as we create a new operating structure that helps stabilise the business, from which we can then drive the business forward.”
As part of the changes, Wilko group finance director Dave Murphy has become chief finance officer. He has succeeded Karen Mackay who has resigned from the company and will be leaving in March.
In a further move, retail director Amanda Jones will take on the new role of chief operating officer with responsibility for stores, logistics, and central operations.
Meanwhile, Anne-Marie Haydock has been promoted to the role of HR director and will replace Kate Price who is leaving the business in April.
In a new appointment, Deborah Rabey will join Wilko as interim chief customer officer to lead the commercial, digital and marketing teams. Until late last year, she was category director for general merchandise at Tesco where she worked in director level positions for 14 years.
However, Philippa McNamara will continue as managing director of Wilko’s Kin product development unit and James Dorling will continue in his role as property, procurement and transformation director.
Jackson added: “Having now announced the new top leadership functions, we’ve already begun conversations with the senior management team and wider organisation to implement the new structure. This includes some changes to our management structure at both our stores and head office. Right now, we’re unable to confirm the scale of change as conversations are ongoing but it will mean a number of roles will be made redundant to support the wider plan.
“We’re fully supporting affected individuals as a result of these changes. Such change will be unsettling to our team members and the wider business, and we’re acting swiftly to put in place the new organisational structure.”
Wilko employs 16,000 people and operates 400 stores across the UK.
